All posts for the month May, 2016

AN04a2_Ch.16: Peoples and Empires in the Americas: Maya Kings and Cities

Timeline: 3rd – 16th C.

FQ: To what degree are the Maya comparable to the great civilizations of the ‘Old’ world?

Main Idea: In the Americas, social complexity and sophistication were integral traits of many Native American peoples, but none displayed this better than the Maya. The Maya developed a highly complex civilization based on city-states and elaborate religious practices. Similarity of religion, language, and beliefs/ values support a general claim that Native American cultures don’t truly disappear, they, instead, develop into the succeeding society.

CCSS/ NYSS…

I. Vocabulary
A. Pictographs: Written language whose content meaning is substantially derived from ‘pictures’ (Icons) that are visually similar to the content focus. Pictographs were useful for recording history, conducting business, and maintaining genealogy and landholding records. Pictographs were also used in the Mexica counting system. This system was based on the number 20. A picture of a flag indicated 20 items; a fir tree represented 20 times 20 items, or 400; and a pouch indicated 400 times 20 items, or 8000.

Mayan written language was more complex and advanced, though it’s clear that it had a pictographic root as well.

B. ‘Slash & Burn’ Agriculture: A common agricultural tradition in forested areas of Mesoamerica and Amazonia. Forested areas are cleared for cultivation by cutting (‘slashing’) brush and setting ‘controlled’ fires. The accumulation of ash acts as a soil enriching component that initially contributes to high agricultural yields. Over time, however, soils become depleted, and in the case of cleared rainforests, the soil quickly becomes agriculturally useless.

II. Maya (1)
The Maya are probably the most recognizable of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica.

A. Context

1. Time: 2600 B.C. – Present
It’s important for us to avoid confusing the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ World use of the term Classical. This term refers to different time periods depending on the hemisphere civilization. In the context of pre-Columbian Native America, the following applies:
* Pre-Classic = Before 300 CE
* Classic = 300 – 900 CE (The height of Mayan Civilization)
* Post Classic = 900 – 1519 CE

2. Place: Originating in the Yucatán, they rose to prominence in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras.

3. Circumstance: Building on the inherited innovations and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya developed a complex society that accepted all elements of civilized life as basically religious in nature.

B. Politics & Society

1. ~80 Independent city-states. Cities were centers of ritual & rule. Ruled by a mortal king with priestly duties. This is similar to the Sumerian civilization, but different from the ancient Egyptian.

3. Pyramids: Serve a ritualistic purpose.(2) These temples are the focal point of communal worship. Like the Sumerian Ziggurat, the Mayan pyramid (3) was centrally located within the city.(4) Mayan pyramids were intended to be used often as evidenced by the stairs built into the design.(5)

C. Religion: A supernatural ‘world view’ permeated Mayan life.

1. Polytheistic

2. Ballgame- A cosmic battle between competing, but complementary, forces in nature. Good and evil, night and day, feast and famine, etc.

3. Nature is imbued with spiritual force/ power.

4. Sacrifices (blood and non-blood) are a human method of impacting the divine and influencing the divine will.

D. Achievements & Contributions

1. Calendrical Systems (The Calendar Round)
The ancient Maya and other Mesoamericans used a 52-year pattern (a calendar round), composed of two cycles which fit together like cogwheels, each with unequal numbers of teeth. “It was used to name individuals, predict the future, decide on auspicious dates for battles, marriages, and so on. Each single day had its omens and associations, …[passage of the] days was like a perpetual fortune-telling machine, guiding the destinies of the Maya.”

a. 260-day Count: We are unsure why the Maya settled on the number 260. It might relate to the period of human gestation or the interval between the planet Venus’ emergence as evening star and morning star. Regardless of where it comes from, the 260-day cycle is the first in the Calendar Round. It is made by inter-meshing the number symbols (dots for units and bars for fives) from 1 – 13 with the glyphs for twenty days named after deities who carry time across the sky.

Since it still keeps track of time, priests today continue to use this “Tzolkin” calendar (also known as Sacred Calendar, the Earth Calendar, the Sacred Almanac, and the Count of Days) for divination.

b. Vague Year or Haab: A 365 day secular (agricultural) calendar. It is a solar calendar (named “vague” because it only approximates the 365+ day calendar) is composed of 18 months with 20 days in each. The 20th day makes use of the Maya’s concept of zero since, instead of its being numbered 20, it is described as the day of the seating of the following month (‘0’). At the end of the 18 months, an unlucky five day period (Uayeb) is intercalated.

c. Days are named according to both of these calendars (Tzolkin and Haab), so a day could be 1 Imix 1 Pop (1 Pop being the Maya New Year), but it would take 52 Vague years (18,980 days) before 1 Imix would line up again with 1 Pop. One problem with this system (called the Calendar Round) is that it only keeps track of events during its 52-year cycle, and makes no provision for keeping track of events in earlier or future cycles.

2. Astronomy: Very accurate charting of celestial objects (movement across the sky).

3. Glyph Writing: A complex writing system with pictographic roots. It can be used for recording numerical data, chronological data, and thought.

4. Architecture: Massive pyramidal structures (temple-pyramids). In addition, the Maya were noted for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial complexes which, in addition to pyramids, would include palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools.

5. Complex social system organized hierarchically.

6. Built sizable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater.

7. Developed the concept of zero. Co-evolved with Gupta civilization.

8. Developed a wood-pulp paper. Co-evolved with Han dynasty.

III. Summary: Why it matters now.
Descendants of the Maya still occupy the same territory.

Footnotes

(1) Access the slide show via the course website.

(2) Pyramids were “Artificial Mountains” => Mountains were home for gods.

(3) As with other Mesoamerican peoples.

(4) Unlike the Egyptian pyramid, which often laid beyond a city’s borders.

(5) In addition, earlier pyramids have been found underneath the top layer of ‘newer’ pyramids.

Resources:

Slide Presentation

Credit to the following (former) students for gathering data incorporated into this lesson: Jimmy Wang, Kevin Teoh, & Nandita Garud from May 2001

Step #1: Familiarize yourself with film questions prior to viewing the film. By reading the questions and understanding the vocabulary contained within, you allow yourself the luxury of viewing the film without having to look at the questions continuously.

Step #2: View and Listen Attentively. Unlike a book, a video provides information via visual images and audio. Both forms of data are ‘more valuable together’ than separately. For example, turn the volume off on your TV during your favorite program. Then, raise the volume while ‘blacking out’ the image. Under which conditions was the data most richly delivered? Always make sure that you have unobstructed viewing of a film and that the sound is audible.

As you view the video, pay attention to visual and or audio cues that reflect the issues raised by the questions below. Your responses should refer to video content as well as your current knowledge and understanding of history.

Step #3: Organize Your Thoughts. Unlike a book, the data from a video is often delivered at a constant rate. With a book, you can slow your reading speed when you encounter a particular segment that is complicated. You can also turn back to a previous page to review information. A film is a bit different in that you may not always have the option to use ‘slow motion’ or ‘rewind’. Therefore, maintaining focus on the imagery and sound is important. Targeted Notes will reduce the amount of time you’re looking away from the film. By writing quick and simple phrases of a few words each, you maintain greater attention to film events. Targeted notes use key words/ phrases that will ignite a thought or idea when you read them later. There is no concern for grammar or spelling while doing this. After the film has ended, you look at your targeted notes and manipulate the data to compile responses in complete sentences.

Organizational Tip: Vertically divide your sheet of paper (where you’ll write your responses). On the ‘left’ half, take targeted notes for each question given. After viewing the video, use the targeted notes to compose complete responses to each question (on the ‘right’ half of the sheet).

Your responses to these film questions will form the foundation of, or supplement, your notes for this lesson. While the focus of the film is Cheng He’s voyages, we don’t want to overlook the policies that made such endeavors possible. We want to then compare & contrast that Ming policy with the version that brought an end to these great maritime ventures. We want our discussion to shed light on what will eventually transpire when Europeans contact the Chinese in greater frequency and scope.

4. Identify at least three (3) maritime advantages the Chinese enjoyed over all other civilized peoples of the world.
5. Describe the treatment given to Cheng He’s crew as they encountered peoples of other lands.
6. Despite the commercial and political potential of Cheng He’s voyages, Ming bureaucrats recommended to the emperor that all maritime ventures cease. In addition, all of Cheng He’s notes were destroyed and he was ordered never to return to the sea. Please offer a plausible (possible within context) explanation for this outcome.

*Vocabulary
A. Forbidden City: Ming dynasty’s imperial palace complex.
B. Eunuch: A male serving in a government role that can vary from harem guard to the highest positions of political power, like the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman empire. The roles vary with the region of the world. One common characteristic of eunuchs is that they are castrated.
C. Caravel: the dominant ship design for European commerce and exploration in the 15th C.
D. Reckon: To calculate. In this context, calculate position and/ or course by considering variables like: ship speed, time, distance, etc.
E. Magnetic North: Refers to the northern pole of the Earth’s magnetic field. It does not coincide with the Earth’s terrestrial North Pole.
F. Tribute: A gift or service showing respect, gratitude, or affection. In this context, the gift-giving is part of a ritual between one of ‘lower’ standing to one of ‘higher’ standing.
G. Junk: Derived from a Javanese word (jon) that was later adapted by the Portuguese (junco). A ship common in Far-East Asian waters. Its name is specific to its design features.
H. “Intelligence”: In this context, ‘information’ concerning an enemy, possible enemy, or an area.

Main Idea: Often, secondary school history courses and textbooks in the United States reflect a world view similar in values to that of Europe. When we study non-European societies, there may be the notion lurking in our mind that these societies were not equal to Europe in creativity, innovation, complexity, and scientific achievement. This is unfortunate and inaccurate.

Complex North American societies were linked to each other through culture and economics. Native America’s great societies and civilizations exploited these links to build and create as well as peoples of the “Old World”. Some of these American societies are well known, while others remain little more than legendary.

V. Summary: Why it matters now.
Traditions and ideas from these cultures became part of the cultures of North America since then.

Footnotes
(1) Listen to a podcast sponsored by The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI). Learn the latest about Pre-Columbian America from one of nation’s important historians. Charles C. Mann’s America Before Columbus\
Brown University, July 22, 2008
Running Time: 45:00

NOTE: If you cannot access the sources listed above using the links, you may have to create an account with the Gilder-Lehrman Institute. Once you have that account, search for the source using the scholar’s name and/ or title of the work.

Your responses to these film questions will form the foundation of, or supplement, your notes for this lesson. The film will reveal some of what amazed and shocked the Conquistadores, as chronicled in the writings of Bernal Diaz and Hernan Cortes. The Mexica eventually fell victim to European technology, disease, and fauna/ flora. However, their innovations continue to be studied and never fail to amaze

How to Use Video as a Source
Step #1: Familiarize yourself with film questions prior to viewing the film. By reading the questions and understanding the vocabulary contained within, you allow yourself the luxury of viewing the film without having to look at the questions continuously.

Step #2: View and Listen Attentively. Unlike a book, a video provides information via visual images and audio. Both forms of data are more valuable together than separately. For example, turn the volume off on your TV during your favorite program. Then, raise the volume while blacking-out the image. Under which conditions was the data most richly delivered? Always make sure that you have unobstructed viewing of a film and that the sound is audible.

As you view the video, pay attention to visual and/ or audio cues that reflect the issues raised by the questions below. Your responses should refer to video content as well as your current knowledge and understanding of history.

Step #3: Organize Your Thoughts. Unlike a book, the data from a video is often delivered at a constant rate. With a book, you can slow your reading speed when you encounter a particular segment that is complicated. You can also turn back to a previous page to review information. A film is a bit different in that you may not always have the option to use slow motion or rewind. Therefore, maintaining focus on the imagery and sound is important. Targeted Notes will reduce the amount of time you’re looking away from the film. By writing quick and simple phrases of a few words each, you maintain greater attention to film events. Targeted notes use key words/ phrases that will ignite a thought or idea when you read them later. There is no concern for grammar or spelling while doing this. After the film has ended, you look at your targeted notes and manipulate the data to compile responses in complete sentences.

Organizational Tip: Vertically divide the sheet of paper where your responses will go. On the left half, take targeted notes for each question given. After viewing the video, use the targeted notes to compose complete responses to each question (on the right half of the sheet).

1. How did the Mexica (Aztecs) know where to create their capital city?
2. How did the European chroniclers react to the site of Tenochtitlan?
3. How did the Mexica keep goods flowing through the markets of the capital city?
4. How did the Mexica ‘renew’ their world and nourish their deities? How might this belief impact their society?

The readings provided below reveal a bit about the important facets of doing business with East Asia. Knowledge and skill, which may only come from experience and trial/ error, was necessary to master the climatic conditions and nurture regional contacts.
While reading the passages below, open a map of the target regions on your computer screen. Try to find the places mentioned as you analyze the text.
When you’re done, respond in complete sentences to the question(s) at the end.

Reading #1
Climate and Trade

“The monsoons greatly facilitated trade in Southeast Asia. The prevailing winds are to the northeast during summer, and to the southwest during the winter. Thus merchants were able to organize their maritime trade based on these seasonal rhythms of changing wind patterns. Merchants awaiting the shift in prevailing winds needed safe ports for their ships and products. These ports soon developed into major centers of Southeast Asian wealth, culture, and political power.”

Source: Jay P Anglin and William J Hamblin, Harner Collins College Outline of World History to 1648, New York, Collins Publishers, 1993, p.300.

Reading #2
The development of trade in Asia and the Middle East

“In the Abbasid period, the great center [of commerce and trade] for the whole of the East was Baghdad, to be replaced after the eleventh century by Cairo, while the distant countries of the Muslim West also had their own activities, though in smaller scale. From Iraq and Persia their ships sailed to the Yemen and on to East Africa, where they went behind Zanzibar and the Comoro Islands. Sailing eastwards, they reached India and eventually Malaysia and China (Canton).

The Hindus and Chinese, for their part, occasionally visited the Muslim ports, or, more often, came to Ceylon or Malaysia to meet merchants from the West. After the disturbances in China that led to the massacre of the merchant colony in Canton at the end of the ninth century, these intermediate-meeting places became customary for a time although direct links with China were gradually re-established. Merchandise brought to Iraq was largely absorbed by the court and the wealthy local aristocracy; a certain proportion however was sent on by caravan to the ports of Syria or Egypt, destined for the Christian and Muslim countries of the Mediterranean; some goods were also sent by land or sea from Syria direct to Constantinople, and from there re-distributed to eastern Europe and Byzantine Italy.”

Question(s) to Ponder:
1. To be successful in commercial/ merchant activities with East Asia, what two skills and/ or bits of knowledge do you believe is critical?

2. If you look at a map of the regions discussed, where would be the perfect place for an enterprising person, like yourself, to setup you business and reap wealth from the commerce?

3. In the 13th and 14th C., the Mongols unified the land mass and all land/ sea routes within the Asian region. Now, East and West are connected like they have never been before, or since. During the sharp rise in commercial and cultural exchange that will occur, identify who (EAST or WEST) you believe will benefit most from the exchange and why.

Then I traveled at the beginning of the month of God, Muharram, in the year ‘fifty-three [753 A.H., 18 February A.D. 1352] with travel companions whose leader was Abu Muhammad Yandakan al-Massufi, may God have mercy on him.

In the company was a group of the merchants of Sijilmasa and others. We arrived after twenty-five days at Taghaza. It is a village with no good in it. Amongst its curiosities is the fact that the construction of its houses and its mosques is of rock salt with camel skin roofing and there are no trees in it, the soil is just sand. In it is a salt mine. It [Salt] is dug out of the ground and is found there in huge slabs, one on top of another as if it had been carved and put under the ground. A camel can carry two slabs of salt. Nobody lives in it except slaves of the Massufa who dig for the salt and live on dates brought to them from Darca and Sijilmasa, and on the meat of camels, and on *anli *which is brought from the land of the blacks.

The blacks arrive from their country and carry away the salt from there. A camel load of it is sold in Iwalatan [Walata] for from eight to ten mithqals, and in the town of Malli for twenty to thirty mithqals, perhaps the price reaches up to forty. The blacks exchange the salt as money as one would exchange gold and silver. They cut it up and trade with it in pieces. In spite of the insignificance of the village of Taghaza, the trading in it comes to the equivalent of many qintars of gold dust.

In 1510, Leo’s uncle made the cross-Saharan trip via Sijilmasa-Taghaza to Timbuktu. Leo traveled with him and later wrote about his adventures.

… of Timbuktu
Here are many shops of artificers and merchants, and especially of such as weave linen [sic] and cotton cloth. And hither do the Barbay merchants bring cloth of Europe. All the women of this region except the maid servants go with their faces covered, and sell all necessary victuals. The inhabitants, and especially strangers living there, are exceedingly rich, insomuch that the king married both his daughters unto two rich merchants. Here are many wells containing the most sweet water; and so often as the River Niger over flowed they convey the water thereof by sluices into the town. Corn, cattle, milk, and butter this region yields in great abundance: but salt is very scarce here, for it is brought hither by land from Taghaza.

… of Jenne
In Jenne, Leo saw “a city prospering from its crops of rice, barley fish, cattle and cotton. The cotton is a major crop sold unto the merchants of Barbay for cloth of Europe, for brass vessels, for armor and such other commodities.”

…of Gao
Leo wrote: “It is a wonder to see what plenty of merchandise is daily brought hither, and how costly and sumptuous all things be. Horses bought in Europe for ten ducats are sold again for forty and sometimes for fifty ducats apiece. There is not any cloth of Europe so coarse, which will not here be sold for four ducats an ell and if it be anything fine they will give fifteen ducats for an ell; and an ell of the scarlet of Venice or of Turkey, valued at three or four crowns and so likewise are spurs, bridles, with other like commodities, and spices also are sold at a high rate: but of all other commodities salt is most extremely dear”.

Source: Patricia and Frederick McKissack, The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1994, pg.s 53, 105-106.

Questions to Ponder:
1. What does the author identify as qualities for each city?
2. How do the descriptions of the cities reveal similarities/ differences between them?